ITFC, it’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for: the Nationals writeup! The two-day festival of track and field from the best NIRCA has to offer has finally come and gone, and boy did we have ourselves a weekend! The farthest jumps, longest throws, and fastest times were put down over the course of two days and a number of events! There’s so much to revisit, and I hope you all enjoy the journey of revisiting the great successes of your teammates! Let’s jump right into the action!
Saturday:
Kicking things off, we have the 100m dash prelims. The women took to the blocks first, setting the tone for what would become a blazing fast weekend. Unsurprisingly, we made up four of the top eight finals spots. Unreal. Melissa Aninagyei-Bonsu, Da’miyah Morgan, Ari Afolabi and Ninawa Odicho all secured spots in the next day’s finals by going 1-3-4-7! That’s not all, as we had stellar performances by Ibu Ajifolokun and Isabella Brunke, very close to each other in 13.79 and 13.81 respectively! Arianna Kopecky and Yelim Na also raced very well as a duo within their heat, running times of 14.35 and 14.43! Jazmin Jones-Jackson rounded out our women in 15.24, a great run for all of our women who lit up the track! Soon to follow, the men took to the start line. Tyler Klein and Chris Raymond-Bertrand made the finals, going 2-4 overall to earn a spot in Sunday’s final race! Marcus Scott set the track on fire, dripping under 12 to run 11.93 in his first race of the weekend! Sanyu Kumaran and David Welte-Hart also posted some big times in their dashes with 12.32 and 12.41 finishes! Srinjoy Das got his day started with some sprints before his jumps, with a 12.63 finish! Sandin Cuturic also got his wheels turning for the weekend, starting his nats journey with a 13.21 finish. Finally, Brandon Perruquet dashed across the line to a smooth 13.94 finish! Way to get the weekend started!
The 400mH came next, and Maria Becerra came to throw down in her signature event! Maria posted a lightning-quick 71.01 time to place fifth overall, earning some valuable points for the Illini! Coach shows ‘em how it’s done! Not only did Maria kill it, but so did Bridget Brokaw, jumping into a new event to start off her already busy weekend! Bridget cruised into a top 10 time of 76.33, which is very impressive for this being her first 400mH of the season! The boys came to play too, as Matas Carmichael and Derrick Stokes threw down some hot times of 62.29 and 63.47 respectively! Piotr Biel made his way around the track in a 71.87 finish to round out our 400mH sprinters. You all rocked this event, which in my opinion, is one of the hardest of them all!
Four strong women braved the 5000m, starting with Suhani Peramanu, who ran well in her heat to end in a time of 22:08.18 in her first outdoor 5k! In the next heat, Maddy Feehan ran tough and executed her race well, finishing in a time of 21:21.65! Next up was our sophomore star Claire Casiello, running a huge 19:40.78 to take 6th overall and score some big points for the women! Last, but certainly not least, Diane Makovic ran a beautifully paced race to take 2nd overall with a blazing 18:29.70! That’s 11 points in the 5k alone! What a run from our women’s 5k group!
The 200m came up next, and our squad from the 100m came back hungry for more. Da’Miyah, Ari, and Ninawa placed once again all in the top 8, earning a spot in the finals the next day, taking up three of the top five spots! Isabella and Lucca ran hard in their races as well, as they finished in fast times of 28.23 and 28.64! Maria, already having herself a day in the 400mH, came back to a quick 28.89 finish in her race! Arianna rounded out our women’s 200m runners to finish in 29.36! The depth of our squad seems to have no limits!
The men came next, and Tyler had no issues qualifying for the final, as per usual. But big man Nic Soto had himself a big run and PB of 22.97! Speed is on the track today! Adam Adil got out the blocks with some strength, finishing fast to a 23.37 finish! Let’s take time to welcome back Kevin Saju to the track! Kevin got it going in an impressive 23.62 after being out for quite some time. Welcome back, my guy! Ben, Ryan Fredericks, and Matas already raced today, but that didn’t stop them from running quick 200m’s as well, as the three finished in 24.36, 24.43 and 24.49! David also came back from the 1 to the 2, and had himself a nice sprint around the track in 24.70. Nana Osei-Tutu stepped up next, with a solid 25.19 performance. Srinjoy Das and Jon Wallk finished very close together, finishing in 25.84 and 26.05! And our final two for the 2, Sandin and Brandon, cruised home to quick finishes in 27.09 and 26.69!
It sounds to me like it’s time for a relay! The 4x800m proved to be a tough challenge with some stacked teams, but our 800m teams showed out and ran well! Our women’s team, composed of Bridget Brokaw, Evelyn Rowan, Rachel Sakwa, and Kaleigh Barnett, ran a great race together to score some big points for the women, taking 7th place in a time of 10:51.85! Shoutouts are in order to Rachel and Kaleigh, who stepped up bigtime to run a great race in an unfamiliar event this season! We couldn’t have done it without you! In the men’s race, the lead traded back and forth, with crazy runs from Thomas Harmon, Henry Hornbrook, John Wiser and John Burns, with the boys fighting hard for a second place finish AND new club record in 7:50.26! Wow, what a race! Our B team held their own as well, with Norb Nieves, Ryan Fredericks, Trevor Glancy, and Michael Rizk rounding out the top 8 in 8:34.27! Our C team of Adam Lupatkin, John Bledsoe, Jose Ocegueda Zuniga, and Salvador Madera, had a great run together to cross the line in 9:39.32! Great relays and amazing effort from everyone!
Heading back to the individual races, the first set of our men’s 5000m runners got ready to roll. Denmark native Anders Mortensen had himself a great race on a hot day, crossing the line at 17:59.90 for a great sub-18 performance! Anders, we will miss you! Leyang Zhang, better known as Hawk, put together a nice performance in the next heat, running a nice PR of 17:04.92! We got a few more boys that’ll race tomorrow in the fast heat, but great job to our first duo of 5k runners!
The 400m is sure to turn some heads, and before we break into the men and women, let’s first acknowledge that Tyler and Ninawa won the open 400m, so get the brooms out for the absolute sweep across the one-lap sprint! Ninawa ran a blistering 60.15 to win, and Tyler, from the slow heat, ran a 48.74 all on his own. Incredible. Also scoring some huge points for us was Lucca Bibbey, grabbing 7th place with a fast 63.41 finish! Arianna had herself a great run, with a finishing time of 68.23! Awesome run! Finally Reiss Christensen, back from injury, had a great run across the track to finish in 78.68. Glad you’re back, Reiss! Back to the men, not only did we get first, but also second, as Chris shot out of the blocks like a cannon to take second place in 49.90! Only three athletes broke the 50 second barrier, and two of those were Illini! Nic also improved from last meet to run 51.50, and with that strength and consistency, who knows what’s coming next! Gerardo Porras and Patrick Sarad had themselves a crazy close race, with Gerardo coming across in 52.95 to Patrick’s 52.96! What a race from the high school and college teammates! Trevor Glancy shows he is returning to form nicely when it counts, with a nice run of 53.93! Kevin and Sanyu took next up, with Kevin finishing in 54.92, and Sanyu in 55.53! Marcus came back for more after the 100m, and ran a very nice 57.02! Jon Wallk ran his lap in 58.0, a great run after a big 200m PR! Ryan McClowry and Nana ran great races of their own to break the 60 second barrier, with runs of 59.40 and 59.71 respectively! Sandin and Salvador showed their quick feet after earlier races, with the boys closing hard to finish in 64.67 and 65.62! Man, what a bevvy of fast 400m’s!
In the 4x100m, the Illini women strangely ran on their own in heat one with no competition. However, that may have been for the better for other teams to not get smoked by our first place relay, regardless of the heat they were in! Melissa, Ari, Rachel Sakwa, and Ninawa brought the baton around in 50.19, a superb time all on their own. Pure dominance per usual! The men’s A relay of Adam Adil, Nic, Kevin, and Tyler, all on heavy legs, still brought it home in 42.82 for a third place finish and some big points! Our B relay of Sandin, David, Marcus and Sanyu also turned some heads with a fast finish of 47.10! Big points and big runs for the 4×1 teams!
The final event of day 1 was packed – as per usual, it’s the 1500m run! Diane, after her monster 5k, ran hard to place ninth in the 1500m in a new PR of 5:03.86! Lauren Bartels and Allison Kokal ran together again, working side by side to finish in 6:15.40, and 6:22.59! Great job to our trio of tremendous women! Now for the encyclopedic list of our men in the 1500m! Starting off hot with our big boys Percy Moser and Coach Spencer Nelson running 4:05.09 and 4:05.57, both pushing hard with massive kicks for big PRs from the boys! James Stanley also continues his rampage of dropping times, running 4:07.75 in the same heat! Just wait for next year, James will be an absolute unit. Simon Hildy also dropped some nice time to run 4:15.49! Norb ran a good confidence booster of a race, getting down to 4:25.73! Isaac also set a monster PR of 4:26.83, using his newfound speed to drop that PR like crazy! Adam Lupatkin has been running very impressively as well with Isaac, as he finished in 4:30.15! Henry and Cade ran neck-and-neck, with a monster kick from Henry to close in 4:32.58 to Cade’s 4:32.83! Aidan Markiewicz ran a huge season’s best of 4:46.44, a great run for the kid! IXC Webmasters Nathaniel Lenning and Tristan Taylor went at it, with the new webmaster coming out on top in 4:51.75, and Tristan close behind in 4:51.99! Gerardo also took a stab at the 1500m, with a good starting point of 4:56.81! Just wait for that 800m tomorrow! John Bledsoe dipped just under the 5 minute barrier, running 4:59.56! Gabe Benson, his times dropping like flies, ran a great 5:05.36! Knocking on the door of sub-5 in the 1500m! Ryan McClowry brought us home in 5:20.18 after a great 400m! Wow! What a list of great runs from the mile run squad! Hats off to you!
The field events closed out our Saturday of track and field, starting off with some dominance in the women’s long jump! Melissa, Rachel Schaaf, Isabella, and Khalia all landed in the top 8, going 2-3-4-8, scoring HUGE points! In order, their jumps went for 5.29m, 5.20m, 5.16m, and 4.73m! Yelim Na had a great jump for herself, going the distance in 4.36m! Dionne Edwards held down our women’s throws to go for 9.07m in the shot put, and 24.64m in the discus! What great power and technique to hold down the fort for ITFC! In the men’s shot put, Austin Simon threw far in 9.64m, and Quinn Rivara threw for 9.03m! Quinn and Austin had some nice discus throws as well, with Quinn throwing for 29.33m, and Austin throwing well in 20.64m! Returning to the jumps, Derrick had a great high jump, getting up for 1.60m after a usual heavy day! In the triple jump, Owen Haas placed third with a huge jump of 13.00m! Tyler also snuck into scoring in 8th place with a 12.36m jump! Derrick jumped in 10.89m after the crazy busy day he’s had! In the women’s triple, Melissa, Rachel and Khalia dominated once again, this time going 1-2-4 in jumps of 11.75m, 11.47m, and 10.34m! Ending the day off on a very high note, I’d say! Is there anything this group can’t do? With this, that concludes the action of day one! So let’s take a quick break, and see what’s in store for Sunday?
Sunday:
Day 2 brought a little less heat in terms of the weather, but all the same in terms of the speed put down on the track and field! What better way to start than with a new club record? Ari got the day rolling with a second place 100mH finish in 15.65, good for a new club record! A hot start! Khalia Mullin and Maria also ran some big times in the hurdles,with 18.37 and 18.73 respectively! Checking on the men’s runs, Ben took 4th place with another big run in 16.36! Matas ran well in his heat, crossing the line in 18.78! In the next heat, Derrick and Piotr cleared the hurdles quick to clock 19.70 and 21.59 respectively! Hurdles never cease to impress!
The 200m finals were up next, and no surprise our women came up big and scored some massive points! Da’Miyah, Ninawa, and Ari came in 3-4-5 in a tight race, running times of 26.81, 26.98, and 27.03 for 15 points total! Amazing race to you three!
Tyler came back in the 200m to win the whole thing in 21.93, making him 2 for 2 on individual wins to this point! Also, he was wearing his club t-shirt at this point. Not even the singlet and still dusted the competition. Light work for our 200m squad!
Changing gears to the 800m, our women’s team continued to show why we won last year and are on course to dominate this year. Bridget, in her main event, ran a huge season’s best and a masterful race in 2:26.67 to take 6th place! Amazing run! Evelyn put together a great race as well to finish in 2:33.47! Our women represented us well in the half mile race!
The young gun Thomas Harmon led our 800m men, taking second place in 1:55.74 thanks to some masterful racing and a big kick. John Burns also ran very well in his signature event, running 1:57.16! Once again, James never ceases to amaze, as the freshman goes 1:59.99 for his first time under 2 minutes! Congrats, James! Braden Cardamone is coming back into his 800m form well, running a strong 2:01.46 to win his heat! Henry, on tired legs from the heavy duty yesterday, ran a strong 2:04.28 in his race! After his 1:57 split yesterday, I’d say it’s a job well done! Patrick Sarad also took a step back onto the 800m field, running a season’s best in 2:05.20! Percy ran 2:05.29 in his heat, running well after a strong 1500m performance! Ryan Fredericks used his newfound finishing speed to close in a huge season’s best of 2:05.96! The 800m strength is returning! Gerardo and Norb took to the line together, with Gerardo coming out on top in 2:08.94, with an even-split race of 2:10.79 for Norb! Trevor found a late kick in his race to bring it home in 2:09.83! Adam Lupatkin led wire to wire in his race, winning his heat in 2:11.53! Jose also went out hard and ran a great race, finishing in 2:13.61. Nathaniel Lenning gave the half mile another shot, running hard for a 2:23.96 finish! Ryan McClowry ran a great season’s best, crossing the line in 2:26.02! Gabe Benson ran well in 2:32.32, and Salvador finished our list of great half milers as he finished his race in 2:44.68! What a list of runners! What a list of great efforts and SB’s! Awesome job to everyone!
Now we move to the 100m finals! Our group of four had a very close race, with Melissa and Ari taking 2-3 in 12.95 and 12.98, and Da’Miyah and Ninawa taking 6-7 in 13.12 and 13.24! 19 points for the Illini! Insane running for the women! In the men’s 100m final, Tyler went 3-for-3 on the track, winning in 10.98, with Chris taking third in 11.14! Some more massive points for the men, and total domination for the women, our 100m crew went off!
Let’s return to our men’s 5k group! Our three distance powerhouses in marathoner Will Gravelle, former D1 star Lake Spradling, and goober Adam Gorcyca, ran some tough and gritty races! Will fought hard up front, ultimately finishing in 9th in a time of 15:23.02 with a marathon still in his legs! Adam rallied hard in the last stages of the race to finish in 15:27.77, and Lake, with little workouts in his legs, still ran a fast 15:42.14! We’re proud of our 5k squad for giving it their all!
The last distance race of the day, the three-person event group team of the 3000m steeplechase, was a tough race for all. Starting with Allison Kokal, she got the crew rolling in 15:21.39! Isaac dominated the first heat of the men’s steeple, setting a huge PB of 10:33.88 in the process with his smooth technique! Norb, after the 800m, had some fatigue, but still fought to a 12th place overall finish in 10:43.02! A small group with big heart and strength, hats off to our steeplechase squad!
To close out a great weekend, of course, is the 4x400m relay. Our women’s team of Bridget, Lucca, Evelyn, and Ninawa, brought home a second place finish in 4:16.50! An amazing run for them, this all but solidified the win for our team! For the men’s team, Nic, Thomas, John Burns, and Tyler, fought hard, and brought home a second place finish in 3:22.26! An amazing effort by our men, setting a big season’s best in the process! Our remaining teams had some mix and matches to avoid injury, but our runners did amazing on all teams, running great and running injury-free! Our B team of Gerardo, Kevin, Patrick and Braden, ran a quick 3:30.88! Having a B team that runs 3:30 shows the crazy depth of our team! Henry, Sanyu, Ryan and Marcus represented our C team well in 3:38.20. Our D team ran a great race together in 3:53.24, and finally, our E team closed hard in 3:57.23 to end our wonderful weekend of track racing!
Before we end there, let’s visit the Sunday field events! A close competition, Tyler took 4th place in the long jump with a best jump of 6.43m! Ben jumped well, earning a 9th place finish with a great 6.03m jump! Owen, after his successes in the triple, jumped 6.00m for 12th place! Nana jumped well to end out in 5.21m, with Derrick and Srinjoy jumping close together in a distance of 4.91m and 4.85m!
Isabella held down the fort in the women’s high jump, scoring for us with a clearance of 1.37m! Great work, Isabella!
With Nats all said and done, it was a repeat dominant victory for the women, becoming two-time NIRCA champions, and the men upgraded, nabbing a spot on the podium with a great third place finish, separated by very few points between second and first! A competitive meet, we brought our A+ game to every single step, throw, and jump, putting our blood, sweat and tears into every practice for this very moment. There’s no better team and no better meet to go out on such a high note, and you should all feel proud of the amazing effort that you put out there! Everyone contributed to the successes of the weekend in some way throughout the year, so a huge thank you is in order for everyone that makes the team what it is today! While there are a couple meets and write ups left, this was the biggest and best to write, as it embodies what ITFC is all about! It was a great weekend with even greater teammates, and I hope you all enjoyed the journey through the weekend! I-L-L!
With love,
Norb 🙂